Saturday, September 17, 2011

Who'll join me for a Poop Walk?

To begin, I cannot sing high enough praises for the book 'Everyone Poops' by Taro Gomi. (Unlike the blog entry which you are about to embark on) this book is not at all offensive or crass, the illustrations are simple but true to life. This book tells it like it is... everyone poops. It's honest, it's something kids think about and it's something kids are often interested in. I remember several years ago having a conversation with a sister-in-law of mine. At the time she lived close to the zoo and would take her three year old son there quite often. She told me that during this time he became far more interested in pointing out the animal poop than the actual animals. That's a quintessential three year old for you... children that age often get drawn into the small details that exist in the environment surrounding them. Poop is one of those details, it's a topic of conversation at every house (whether we like it or not). From the beginning of toilet training until the time your child can wipe his/her own butt, we all talk about it- and run our lives around who needs to use the potty. This book is a great way to address the fact that pooping is normal, pooping is good, and in fact- everyone poops.I suggest that after reading this fantastic picture book you extend the learning. I decided to take my three kids out on a poop walk the other night. (This activity would be fantastic for a pre-school group.) I will tell you that when my mother-in-law heard what we were up to she told me we needed to get a life. But I will also tell you that we all had a great time. Here's what you've been waiting for... come join us on our poop walk!

First off, right next to the van we spotted our first poop. There it was... a big white splatter poop. The kids were quick to identify bird poop. They even wondered if it possibly came from the wandering peacocks in the neighborhood. "Why is bird poop white?" they wondered... good question, that's one we need to look into.

After that, my 5 year old knew just where to go to find some BIG poop. We loaded into the wagon and headed down the road. He led us to the nearby horse pasture, and sure enough- just inside the fence was a large pile of poop. Good thinking!

Time to find some poop back at home again. My baby is the poop finder in the back yard everyday. We have a large dog and she loves to find what he leaves behind "Mama, Poop!" I hear that everyday at cleanup time. There were several piles this night, here's the one I photographed.

Next I asked the kids where else we might find poop in our back yard, my four year old was quick to lead us underneath his rabbits pen. It's easy to identify rabbit poop! (and boy do they poop a lot).

Our walk then led us out back to the pheasant pens. There was poop all over the place in there.

In the hay barn one of the kids found this poop, we weren't sure who or what it came from, but it was definitely poop.

We continued out at the pasture where there was sheep poop in abundance. We talked about how sometimes sheep poop is in little balls kinda like rabbit poop. Must have something to do with what they eat.

My little girl spotted more bird poop on the way back from our walk.

Right at the end I thought of a tiny kind of poop we could all go see. I told the kids this would be the smallest poop of the night. It was only a riddle for a minute, pretty soon as they saw I was leading them into our garden they guessed it must be grasshopper poop. Yep!

We found one other (non-poop) item of interest out on our walk. When we were in the barn we stumbled onto some owl pellets! Awesome find. That was our bonus and another great topic of science conversation.

Anyone who might be interested in taking a poop walk of there own, I highly recommend it! It was a great adventure and it led to some quality discussion time. I suggest you also take pictures as you go out and about, the pictures were wonderful when we came back inside for reflection. During this reflection I think it's important to talk about how pooping is a normal and healthy part of being alive. It's a part of who we are! Hope this wasn't too disgusting or offensive to you.

This a great-- yes a little disgusting, but very fun and educational! Why is poop so fascinating for kids anyway? I can really see this actually helping kids who are having potty training issues. By the way my favorite picture is the little chubby baby finger pointing at the bird poop-- priceless!

Meet Robyn

& Whitney

Mom of 3 and frequent tangent goer-offer! I've got waaaay more books than my husband thinks necessary, but there's (currently) less than $10 in library fines, so life is good!

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